An Immigrant Experience Retold

Richard See is 7 years old. Like a lot of kids growing up in Los Angeles, he lives in a California Craftsman-style bungalow, is the product of an interracial marriage and struggles to live like an all-American boy while keeping in touch with the cultural heritage of his more traditional elders.

That’s the setting for an exhibit opening Saturday at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. The boy and his family are real, but the setting is more than six decades in the past. The goal is to depict the experiences of one Chinese immigrant family and show how their lives in the West during the 1930s relate to children today.

The day portrayed is July 4, 1937. The Fourth of July is a huge day of celebration in the See household, not only because of its national significance but because it’s Richard’s birthday.

Through the re-creation of the See family’s home and businesses, museum-goers can experience what life was like for young Richard and his extended family. A series of hands-on activities will allow visitors to pick up a 1930s-era telephone and listen in on a conversation between family members, see what’s cooking in the kitchen at the family’s Dragon’s Den restaurant or help unpack shipping crates at grandpa’s antique store, F. Suie One Co.

“It’s much more meaningful to tell a real story,” says Kim Milliken Hayden, education director at the Autry. “It helps people avoid stereotypes . . . and by studying real families through time, children and adults can empathize with both the struggles and successes of everyday life.”

On Saturday, the exhibit will open in the Family Discovery Gallery with a nod to the Chinese New Year. Traditional Chinese lion dances, Chinese jump rope and presentations by theatrical and Chinese folk dance groups will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Lisa See, daughter of Richard (now 70), will be on hand as the guest curator of the project. Much of the historical information in the exhibit came from her book “On Golden Mountain: The 100-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family,” as well as from other See family members, including Richard and his cousin, Leslee. (Leslee still runs a branch of the F. Suie One Co., founded by family patriarch Fong See near the turn of the century.)

Family photographs, diplomas and other personal papers are part of the exhibit, including a popular child’s book that belonged to Richard, “The Story of Ping.” Enlarged photographs of the businesses opened by Richard’s grandfather, Fong See, hang on the walls.

“Even though the gallery profiles a Chinese American family, people will see there are more similarities than differences,” says Irene N. Rodriguez, the gallery project manager. “We’re all part of a family.”

Inevitably, the exhibit will be “profoundly different” from what people might expect from the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, says John Gray, executive director and CEO of the museum.

But such an exhibit, he says hopefully, will “lead to a huge connection. Somebody is different than I am but in essence we’re the same.”

The exhibit will run for five years, when another immigrant family will be selected to represent yet another story of life in the West. The previous gallery exhibit followed the story of a Mexican family. “We’re open for suggestions,” Hayden says.

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Family Discovery Gallery, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way. Opening activities 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Museum hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission: $7.50; $5 seniors and students with ID; $3 ages 12 and younger. Parking free. (323) 667-2000.